Large Fierce Mammal

Andy Fairhurst self-portrait as it adorns his DeviantART profile page.

Our third featured artist is Andy Fairhurst, a brilliant digital graphic artist who, at last report, resides in North Wales. He lists his extra-curricular interests as, “Wildlife, Bruce Lee, spooky stuff, weird stuff, ancient stuff, writing and beer,” and reports his favourite style of art as, “Anything original. Dark nightmarish with sexy women also.” Obviously, even without his incredible talent, those disclosures alone would have propelled him more than half way down the road to getting exposure here.

Fairhurst tends to do collections of related work, and today I’d like to focus on three such series – Wotsit And Thingy Dragon, the Witchfinder General, and When I Grow Up.

What grabs me about Fairhurst’s work is how it captures imagery that could have come straight out of the head of any kid who either grew up, or is still in the process of growing up, with that Tool most vital to all that’s fulfilling and joyful in Life – Imagination. Personally, I fall into the “still growing up” category.

What follows is a representative gallery of Dark Sentiments from the imagination of Andy Fairhurst. Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them. Viewing them on DeviantART may offer even better views, and links for doing that are sprinkled throughout this article this article.

Wotsit And Thingy Dragon

This series is an example of how not just the fruits of Imagination, but Imagination itself can be captured in Art. Is this a boy living in a world where real dragons exist, or is he adventuring with one that only exists for him? Alternatively, is this a dragon that grew up imagining he had a boy of his own? They delight me too much to care.

The Boy and his Dragon – This isn’t actually an original part of the series, but I present it first because of the obvious puppyhood of the dragon. Says the Artist, “It’s been a couple of years since I last did a painting of this pair. Here they are trying to catch fish. This was when his dragon was a lot younger…they do grow up fast, do dragons …. I will probably develop these into a children’s picture book soon so expect a few more with these two and their adventures.”

Fishing on the Drinking Dragon – “This is a speedpainting for me…I did it this evening in about 4/5 hours with a couple of breaks. I decided to see if I could work from scratch with no idea of what I was going to paint until pen hit tablet. Anyway it is cliched as hell but I think it is ok for the time taken.”

Sausage for the Sitting Dragon

Splishing with the Splashing Dragon

Lazing by the Sleeping Dragon

The Witchfinder General

The Witchfinder General goes to work every day doing just what his title implies – he hunts down the witch population. A bit of a collector, he takes them home and enslaves them to take care of his household needs. The series consists of a collection of images showing captive witches chained in the parts of the Witchfinder General’s house wherein he requires they perform their duties. Busy as he is, the man himself only appears in one out of the 13 paintings – tidying up in his private cemetery with burial of some witch slaves that didn’t make the cut.

Because of the number of paintings in this series, I’m only going to offer a few of my favourites here. To view the entire gallery, go to the appropriate DeviantART page here, and don’t miss what the Artist had to say about the action in each one.

The Witchfinder General’s Kitchen

The Witchfinder General’s Parlour

The Witchfinder General’s Bathroom

The Witchfinder General’s Library

The Witchfinder General’s Study

The Witchfinder General’s Graveyard

When I Grow Up

This last series is incredibly powerful in its simplicity, once again capturing Imagination as children act out what super character they’d like to be. Interestingly, they don’t all want to be the good guy. As with the Witchfinder General series, I’m going to hit what are, for me, the high points, and let you check out the entire collection in the gallery here.

Ghostrider Kid

Wolverine Kid – my personal favourite.

Cat Kid

Hawkeye Kid

Hulk Kid

Storm Kid – my second favourite. That trampoline is priceless.

Thor Kid

So there’s a little insight into the work of Andy Fairhurst. I highly recommend that you all keep tabs on what he’s up to by way of his DeviantART galleries.